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Data and Statistics

Public health surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of outcome-specific data for use in public health practice. The public health approach to problem solving includes using surveillance data to identify problems and assess the effectiveness of interventions. Without accurate and timely data, public health programs suffer. This glossary is available of commonly used terms in public health surveillance and epidemiology.

CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) monitors maternal and infant mortality, the most serious reproductive health complications. In addition, attention is focused on gathering data to better understand the extent of maternal and infant morbidity, adverse behaviors during pregnancy, and long-term consequences of pregnancy.

Data and Statistics Reference Links

Data Sources & Links

PRAMStat System PRAMStat is an online data platform developed to provide public access to over 250 maternal and child health indicators from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS).

Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System: CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System uses data from all U.S. states to describe levels and causes of pregnancy-related deaths at the national level.

Sudden Unexpected Infant Death: CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health presents National Center for Health Statistics data related to sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). Data presented include breakdown of SUID by cause, trends in SUID rates by cause, SUID by race/ethnicity, and data resources for SUID and sudden infant death syndrome.

Data.gov Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.

CDC WONDER Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research—an easy-to-use, menu-driven system that makes the information resources of the CDC available to public health professionals and the public at large.

Welcome to WISQARS™ (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) This is an interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data.

BRFSS By the early 1980s, scientific research clearly showed that personal health behaviors played a major role in premature morbidity and mortality. Although national estimates of health risk behaviors among U.S. adult populations.

YRBSS The YRBSS was developed in 1990 to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults

Peristats PeriStats was developed by the March of Dimes Perinatal Data Center, PeriStats provides free access to federal, state, city, and county maternal and infant health data.

State Profile Fact Sheets

Twenty-eight states have prioritized the strategy of improved preconception/interconception care, which includes the delivery of contraceptive services to prevent teen and unintended pregnancy, and improve birth spacing.

International Reproductive Health Surveys

Abortion

Abortion

In 2014, 652,639 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. The abortion rate for 2014 was 12.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, and the abortion ratio was 186 abortions per 1,000 live births.

Compared with 2013, the total number and rate of reported abortions for 2014 decreased 2%, and the ratio decreased 7%. Additionally, from 2005 to 2014, the number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions decreased 21%, 22%, and 22%, respectively. In 2014, all three measures reached their lowest level for the entire period of analysis (2005—2014).

Women in their twenties accounted for the majority of abortions in 2014 and throughout the period of analysis. The majority of abortions in 2014 took place early in gestation: 91.5% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation; a smaller number of abortions (7.2%) were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and even fewer (1.3%) were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation. In 2014, 22.6% of all abortions were early medical abortions. The percentage of abortions reported as early medical abortions increased 110% from 2005 to 2014, with a 1% increase from 2013 to 2014. Source: MMWR..

Assisted Reproductive Technology Success Rates

Fertility clinics in the U.S. report and verify data on the assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles started and carried out in their clinics, and the outcomes of these cycles, during each calendar year. ART includes all fertility treatments in which either eggs or embryos are handled. The main type of ART is in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF involves extracting a woman’s eggs, fertilizing the eggs in the laboratory, and then transferring the resulting embryos into the woman’s uterus through the cervix. These ART data are a rich source of information that can give potential ART users an idea of their average chances of success per ART cycle or ART transfer.

The ART data are also available on www.healthdata.gov. This provides instant view and download of datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the federal government. Healthdata.gov provides descriptions of the federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.

Hysterectomy

NCHS FastStats

Fact sheet: Hysterectomy in the United States, 2000–2004
In the United States, approximately 600,000 hysterectomies are performed each year, and the procedure is the second most frequently performed major surgical procedure among reproductive-aged women.